Wizz Air (WIZZ) missed underlying net profit guidance issued in April after the Covid-19 pandemic immobilised the industry and most of its fleet was grounded towards the end of March. However, the group’s base case now assumes a gradual increase in operation in May and June.
Wizz Air expects to increase its number of seats this year by around 9 per cent, in line with its aim to grow its fleet to 131 aircraft by March 2021. Management said that it does not expect an improvement in terms of available seat kilometres (ASKs), which is the number of seats available for scheduled passengers multiplied by the number of kilometres those seats were flown. In a “severe but plausible” downside scenario, only 60 per cent of capacity would be flown in the remainder of its current financial year, improving to three-quarters by June 2021.
The group emphasised liquidity of €1.5bn (£1.3bn) in cash, and flagged that it had issued a further £300m under the UK government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) in April. The airline has also introduced cost mitigation measures, including cutting its workforce by almost a fifth, reducing third-party spending and lowering pay.
Analysts at UBS forecast an adjusted operating profit of €9m and diluted losses per share of 44ȼ in 2021, rising to €432m and 265ȼ the following year.
| WIZZ AIR (WIZZ) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 3,480p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 2.97bn | |
| TOUCH: | 3,470-3,480p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 4,526p | LOW: 1,500p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 1,453ȼ* | NET DEBT: | 55% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (€bn) | Pre-tax profit (€m) | Earnings per share (ȼ) | Dividend per share (ȼ) |
| 2016 | 1.43 | 201 | 362 | nil |
| 2017 | 1.57 | 256 | 430 | nil |
| 2018 | 1.94 | 287 | 402 | nil |
| 2019** | 2.32 | 129 | 174 | nil |
| 2020 | 2.76 | 294 | 376 | nil |
| % change | +19 | +128 | +116 | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| £1=€1.12 | ||||
